Picture
above:
My father when he was a boy,
in his early years in Pidvysoke...
Click on picture for full size

Picture
above:
1950 s...My father (to the right)
and his best childhood years friend
Petrukhiv (to the left) in Pidvysoke.
Petrukhiv became a geologist,
worked in Laos
and lives in Krasnodar
in Russia now. Click on picture
for full size

His first name is
Eugene in English (Eugenio in Italian, Eugen in German, Eugeniusz
in Polish) , though he is usually called Genyk. He was born on 2
nd of April, 1950 in village Trostyanets', where most of my family (from
father's side) comes
from. He was born 5 years after the Second World Soviet Union
during Stalin times yet (Stalin died in two years later 1953).
These were the years of establishing of Soviet rule in newly
occupied south eastern Poland's Ukrainian lands, which were
incorporated into USSR (Ukraine SSR) in 1939. His parents (my
grandparents) lived then in Trostyanets' with my father's
father's parents. Shortly after, his father Boronislav moved to
village Pidvysoke to work at slime slaking plant there.

My father and his mother
Mykhaylyna Zakharii
(maiden surname Gawdyda),
my grandmother...
in 1950 s (USSR times)
Click on the picture for full size

On picture
above: My father skiing
in Pidvysoke, Soviet times,
late 1950 s - early 60 sClick on the picture for full size

There were more
opportunities in Pidvysoke than in remote Trostyanets'. After
having finished studying in Kiev Mining School, my grandfather
became engineer at Pidvysoke plant. And after a few years of
renting accommodation, he built his own house in Pidvysoke, where my father was brough up and later I
grew up and where still my grandparents live and I come often to
visit them there.

Picture above:
wedding of my parents on
19 th of July, 1973 in Lviv (Lvov, then USSR),
where my mother comes from.
My grandparents are in upper row
(father's parents are to the right)
Click on picture for full size.

Picture above:
My father at home in Berezhany
January, 2000...
Click on the picture for full size

My father finished
secondary school in Verkhnya Lypytsia and entered Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical
University in town
Drohobych (Drogobych/Drohobycz) in Lviv region. He
studied and graduated in Ukrainian Language and Literature
(Ukrainian Philology). He got to know my mother Liuba there, who studied French philology there
and on 19 th of July, 1973 they got married in Lviv (Lvov/Lwow), the city where my mother was
born and comes from (and where I studied at the university and my
grandparents live in). First years after the marriage they lived
in Pidvysoke with father's parents. On November 3rd, 1974, my older brother
Bohdan was born
and a year later on 28 th of October, I was born. The winters in
1974 and 1975 were very cold and full of snow. My mother taught
French at the Secondary School in Lypytsia, which is just a few
kilometers from Pidvysoke. My father started working in Berezhany Agricultural Technicum (Technical School),
where he taught Russian Language and Literature since there were
no vacancies to teach Ukrainian. He was given a flat from the
School in Berezhany, where our family moved to live there. Since
then my family lives in Berezhany. My sister Oksana was born in
June of 1978 and the youngest brother Taras was born in August of
1986. So we are his four children. Father still teaches at the
the same college and mother is already retired, after many years
of work at Berezhany Secondary School no 3, where I studied as
well. My father is philatelist and used to collect Soviet and
international stamps and has impressive philatelic collection,
though now after the collapse of Soviet Union and Soviet economy
with economic difficulties in Ukraine he does not buy stamps
anymore.

My father's life interrupted suddenly and he passed away into eternity in the night of the 2nd of February, 2004.